page_title: Duchy of Cantabria
hierarchical_section_title: Duchy of Cantabria
caption_attribution_description: Español: Imagen de la peña del Castillo en Peña Amaya. Este asentamiento abarca desde el siglo X a.C. hasta el siglo XIV d.C. Situado en el extremo meridional de la Lora burgalesa, Peña Amaya se asoma como una adelantada atalaya sobre la campiña castellana. Desde la Prehistoria, las condiciones estratégicas de este favorecido enclave han atraído a muy diversos pobladores. A finales de la Edad del Bronce, en torno al s. X a.C., la presencia humana en el cerro se intensifica, convirtiéndose durante la Edad del Hierro (s. VIII-I a. C.) en uno de los principales castros cántabros, que perdura hasta el último episodio de la conquista romana de la Península (29-19 a. C.). Se funda entonces la ciudad romana de Amaia Patricia, que será tomada por el rey visigodo Leovigildo en el año 574 d. C. Tarik ben Ziyad, caudillo de la invasión árabe, arrasa esta plaza en el año 712 d. C. expulsando al dux Pedro, padre del futuro Alfonso I. Amaya queda deshabitada hasta finales del s. IX (860 d. C.) cuando el conde Rodrigo, por orden de Ordoño I, repuebla este lugar, que pronto pasa a convertirse en una de las plazas más importantes de la primera frontera de la Reconquista cristiana. La villa medieval permanecerá en el cerro, amparada por la fortaleza que se alza en el punto más alto, hasta que, probablemente en el S. XII, la población se traslade a l llanura inmediata. El castillo, como sede del poder señorial, continúa en uso al menos hasta entrado el s. XIV. De esta dilatada historia hoy podemos observar la trinchera de acceso al castro posiblemente cántabra, las ruinas del pueblo medieval, que tal vez reaprovechó estructuras más antiguas, las murallas que defendieron el castillo y, en la cima, apenas vestigios de la imponente fortaleza que señoreó Amaya.
context_page_description: The Duchy of Cantabria was a march created by the Visigoths in northern Spain to watch their border with the Cantabrians and Basques. Its precise extension is unclear in the different periods, but seems likely that it included Cantabria, parts of Northern Castile, La Rioja, and probably western areas of Biscay and Álava.
  The two main towns of Cantabria before its conquest by the Goths were Amaya and the City of Cantabria, believed to have been near modern Logroño. Both towns were destroyed in 574 by Liuvigild, who massacred many of their inhabitants. The legend of this destruction remained for long in the memory of the affected peoples. Bishop Braulio of Zaragoza wrote in his Life of St. Emilianus how the saint prophesied the destruction of Cantabria because of their alleged sins. It is held in popular belief that the converted refugees from the City of Cantabria founded the monastery of Our Lady of Codés in Navarre.
  A Senate of Cantabria mentioned in the Saint Aemilianus' work bears witness to a local nobility and a governing diet that may have been of the last independent Hispano-Roman provincial authorities.
context_section_description: The Duchy of Cantabria (Spanish: Ducado de Cantabria, Cantabrian: Ducáu de Cantabria) was a march created by the Visigoths in northern Spain to watch their border with the Cantabrians and Basques. Its precise extension is unclear in the different periods, but seems likely that it included Cantabria, parts of Northern Castile, La Rioja, and probably western areas of Biscay and Álava.
  The two main towns of Cantabria before its conquest by the Goths were Amaya (in northern Burgos) and the City of Cantabria, believed to have been near modern Logroño. Both towns were destroyed in 574 by Liuvigild, who massacred many of their inhabitants. The legend of this destruction remained for long in the memory of the affected peoples. Bishop Braulio of Zaragoza (631-651) wrote in his Life of St. Emilianus how the saint prophesied the destruction of Cantabria because of their alleged sins. It is held in popular belief that the converted refugees from the City of Cantabria founded the monastery of Our Lady of Codés in Navarre.
  A Senate of Cantabria mentioned in the Saint Aemilianus' work bears witness to a local nobility and a governing diet that may have been of the last independent Hispano-Roman provincial authorities. Some names are provided too, such as autochthonous Sicorius or Tuentius, with no clear ethnic affiliation, and Latin names Honorius and Nepotianus.
  In 581, right before major Frankish expeditions against the Basques and the establishment of the Duchy of Vasconia under Frank suzerainty, the count of Bordeaux Galactorius is cited by the poet Venantius Fortunatus as fighting both the Basques and the Cantabrians, while the Chronicle of Fredegar brings up a shadowy Francio duke of Cantabria ruling for a long period some time before Sisebut's successful campaigns against Basques and Cantabrians. Archaeological discoveries in the last decades around the millennium have brought to light that the cultural and economic influences, and even small groups of people in the near Basque territory once part of the duchy or limiting with it, came from way beyond the Pyrenees during this time gap of political vacuum or at the best, uncertain authority.
  In the late Visigothic period, at a second stage after the 6th century Cantabrian defeat, the Duchy of Cantabria is attested as being a buffer zone bearing witness to continuous fighting between Visigoths and Basques. In 670, the Visigothic king Wamba was campaigning there against the Basques when he heard of a rebellion in Septimania. Notice of a certain duke Peter of Cantabria, father of Alfonso I of Asturias, is attested on 9th century Asturian documents for the first years of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania.
caption: Peña Amaya, where the ancient Cantabrian town of Amaya was located. Situated on the southern end of the Duchy, looks like a forward watchtower on the Castilian countryside.
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